The Undercurrent
A Novel
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3.8 • 28 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
“A mystery of remarkable scope, bristling with intelligence, beauty, and humanity. It is, quite simply: stunning.” —Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl
“A stunning, achingly beautiful and gripping mystery. Full of page-turning suspense, intrigue, and secrets…I loved it.” —Chris Whitaker, author of All the Colors of the Dark
An Apple Books Best Debut of 2024
An overwhelmed new mother becomes obsessed with the unsolved disappearance of a young girl from her small Texas hometown—and unearths her own family’s dark secret.
It’s 2011 and Deecie Jeffries’s missing person’s case in Austin, Texas, is still cold. New mom Bee, struggling with postpartum depression, is living in Portland, Maine, having left Austin–and those memories–far behind. Until Leo, her childhood crush and her estranged twin Gus’s best friend, suddenly resurfaces, drawing Bee back into their shared past.
Bee’s predictable life is upended, pushing her to return to her childhood home and piece together a neighborhood’s shattered history. Bee becomes consumed with a need to uncover the truth about Deecie’s disappearance and what happened to the families who lived across the field from one another—Gus, Leo, and their mothers: Mary, a homemaker, whose only escape is the local community theater, and Diana, a serious academic dedicated to her studies.
Told in multiple perspectives with two different timelines, The Undercurrent is a gripping portrait of motherhood, obsession, broken family bonds, and buried secrets.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Three mothers may hold the key to solving the mystery of a missing girl in this well-crafted literary thriller. Bee Rowan seems to have the perfect life living in Portland, Maine, with her newborn child and doctor husband, Charlie, when her childhood best friend, Leo, shows up with news about her estranged twin brother, Gus. Now Bee must return to her Texas hometown to confront the past and discover exactly what her mother, Mary, and Leo’s mother, Diana, know about the mystery of a missing girl. Alternating between Bee’s life in Portland and her teenage years, debut author Sarah Sawyer delivers a clever mystery that highlights how far mothers will go protect their children. We loved seeing how the lives of these three women intertwine, leading us on a winding path through the past and revealing secrets they all thought would remain hidden. With an intimate look at the effects of loneliness and isolation on women, The Undercurrent is a smart and compelling thriller that will totally pull you in.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A new mother fixates on a girl's long-ago disappearance from her Austin, Tex., neighborhood in Sawyer's arresting debut. Bee Rowan; her troubled twin, Gus; and her girlhood crush Leo Nastasi were once close, but she hasn't spoken to either of them in years. In 2011, Leo tracks down Bee in Maine, where she lives with her husband and eight-week-old daughter, Attie, and lets her know Gus wants to talk. She returns with Attie to Austin, where, to Bee's surprise, Gus is staying at their mother Mary's house. There, she finds hidden in her childhood bedroom a letter to Leo from Deecie Jeffries, the girl who disappeared in 1987. The discovery prompts Bee and Leo to finally confront long-ago events that drove a wedge between them. In chapters set in 1987, a teenage Leo, though quiet and kind, sets fires and acts out at school, leading his mother to believe he might have had something to do with Deecie's disappearance. Meanwhile, Mary worries her abusive husband might be responsible after finding a Polaroid print in their garage that hints at child pornography. Sawyer constructs a spellbinding mystery as she toggles between timelines and the viewpoints of three very different mothers. This one leaves a mark.
Customer Reviews
Excellent unexpected story
This book was beautifully written with a surprising ending I didn’t expect.
A Classic
What a beautiful, amazing, sad, but also uplifting story. This one will stay with me for a while. Highly recommend!